U.S. APPEALS FEDERAL
COURT RULING
THAT HALTED IMPLEMENTATION OF
A NEW LABELING STANDARD TO PROTECT DOLPHINS

The United States announced today that
it is appealing a lower court ruling that prevents the government
from authorizing the use of a new definition for "dolphin-safe"
tuna sold in the United States. The appeal was announced by Commerce
Department Secretary William Daley with the strong endorsement
of the State Department.
Daley has asked the Justice Department
to take all steps necessary to expedite the appeal, which will
be decided by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
in San Francisco.

The new dolphin-safe definition, approved
by the Department of Commerce
in regulations issued on Jan. 3, 2000, is an integral part of
an important new multi-lateral agreement, known as the International
Dolphin Conservation Program. The agreement among the United
States, Mexico, and a number of other foreign nations became
effective in March 1999. The IDCP is designed to continue the
international efforts that have succeeded in lowering dolphin
mortality from certain tuna fishery operations in the eastern
Pacific Ocean by 99 percent over the past decade.

"For the international program to
be effective in protecting dolphins, the foreign nations which
have been responsible for reducing the harm to dolphins must
have the incentive of selling their tuna to U.S. markets, which
has been denied throughout the 1990s as a result of legislatively
mandated embargoes," said Daley. "If they can't sell
their tuna here, they'll sell it to countries that do not require
the same dolphin protection standards."

"We cannot unilaterally protect dolphins
from fishing practices on the high seas," Daley added. "International
problems demand international solutions. And we believe that
we have successfully negotiated an effective international agreement
with other tuna fishing nations that will reduce dolphin mortality."

In 1997, the United States Congress enacted
a law allowing the Department of Commerce to lift the long-standing
embargoes against imports of yellowfin tuna from Mexico and several
other countries if they are participating in the International
Dolphin Conservation Program and the Inter-American Tropical
Tuna Commission. The law also enables tuna from the eastern tropical
pacific ocean to qualify as "dolphin-safe" -- so long
as no dolphins were killed or seriously injured when using the
purse seine method of catching tuna. The prior "dolphin-safe"
labeling standard, which has gone back into effect as a result
of the lower court ruling, restricts the use of the dolphin-safe
label. Tuna caught by vessels larger than 400 tons carrying capacity
in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean using purse seines to encircle
dolphins are not now eligible for the dolphin-safe label.

The court order from which the United States
is appealing today had set aside a Commerce Department initial
finding published in May 1999. Commerce official Penelope Dalton,
the head of the National Marine
Fisheries Service, had found insufficient scientific evidence
that continued purse seine fishing was having a significant adverse
impact on three groups of dolphins whose numbers had declined
since the early 1960s, when purse seine fishing became widespread
in the eastern Pacific Ocean. On April 11, 2000, the federal
district court in San Francisco found, in response to complaints
filed by several environmental groups, that Commerce had not
made sufficient progress in conducting certain scientific research
that Congress spelled out in the 1997 law. Several other major
environmental groups, including Greenpeace,
the World Wildlife Fund, the
Center for Marine
Conservation, and the Environmental
Defense Fund, all supported the government's position. The
lower court order was made final on May 2, which triggered the
government's decision to appeal.